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grey29120
Guest
I’ve noticed that religious people frequently say that atheists, agnostics or people of other faiths reject God. I’d like to know why you think I’m rejecting God.
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DavidFilmer
Guest
I’ll slip in a quick answer before this gets closed or yanked - which is likely because the subject of atheism is currently off-topic here (see the stickies).
I would say you (presuming you are an athiest) reject the idea of God. You cannot be said to reject God, because you don’t believe in God. It’s like I can’t reject unicorns.
I would say you (presuming you are an athiest) reject the idea of God. You cannot be said to reject God, because you don’t believe in God. It’s like I can’t reject unicorns.
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jsaldar
Guest
People of other faiths don’t reject God. Atheist reject God, because Atheist don’t believe in God.
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Corki
Guest
Well, in your particular case, you mentioned in another thread that you are a Baptized Melkite - a faith tradition you have now rejected. What have you rejected it in favor of? If it’s another faith tradition, you have not rejected God - unless that faith tradition is polytheistic or something *way off *from the Christian idea of God. If you have rejected it in favor of an agnostic or atheistic lifestyle, you have.
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grey29120
Guest
Oh, sorry about that.
It’s not the case of accepting or rejecting something, I just can’t believe something without a good reason.
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grey29120
Guest
Well, people of other faiths believe in a god, yes. But I assume that you think they reject your god.
Atheists don’t reject God. We see no good reason to believe in a god or gods, hence we don’t believe in them.
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grey29120
Guest
You’re confusing me with someone else, I never mentioned anything like that in another thread.
I wanted to know why you think I’m rejecting God, and you haven’t told me why you think that. This is because you’re clearly misusing the word “rejected”.
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Corki
Guest
Sorry, I did confuse you with another poster.
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Pfaffenhoffen
Guest
The 3 names or ideas are different.
What are you?
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Trishie
Guest
Why does it worry you…the terms that others use?
If you find it personally untrue,
so do Catholic find some terms others use concerning them to be, in our view, inaccurate.
It is unlikely that any of us who find others’ concepts inaccurate will ever be able to eradicate them amongst others who have a particular way of viewing creation or existence.
If you find it personally untrue,
so do Catholic find some terms others use concerning them to be, in our view, inaccurate.
It is unlikely that any of us who find others’ concepts inaccurate will ever be able to eradicate them amongst others who have a particular way of viewing creation or existence.
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Philthy
Guest
The reason is because we believe that God calls everyone out of love for them and that He has placed his law in their hearts to which he hopes they respond with an emphatic “yes!”.
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jochoa
Guest
Excellent question, my friend! Please consider the following concepts in regards to “Rejecting” God:
To reject can be defined by Google as: Dismiss as inadequate, inappropriate, or not to one’s taste.
Since God is Truth: If one does not believe in Him because one finds the evidence of Him as inadequate, inappropriate, or not to one’s taste, then one is rejecting God.
Incredibly understandable! I was definitely in the same boat, you are in now, a few years ago. I hope the following will help you to come to know God:
To know God, one must do a few things:
- Want everyone to be able to experience happiness (contentment to intense joy) without ever losing any peace (freedom from disturbance).
- Set out to master being unconditionally patient and kind so that your relationships and self may experience happiness without losing any peace. Patience and kindness in the face of impatience and meanness is the major growth factor.
- Find the solution to the following problem:
Given ALL the following:
-You, as a thinking, feeling, acting, living being exist in solitude (Hint: It is best to think of yourself existing as a single-celled being, similar to how you first came to be).
-There is nothing else in existence.
-The only method to create something, living or non-living, is to first think of it in full detail.
-You want to experience limitless happiness without ever losing peace.
How do you make that happen? I recommend first thinking about what are the requirements and trying to figure out how to make those happen individually.
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Trishie
Guest
I understand where you are coming from, Grey.
However, some people who speak of an unbeliever ‘rejecting God’ are those who can’t imagine how anyone can fail to believe.
They don’t understand anyone’s understanding ‘rejection’ requires belief.
To reject God implies that a person knows or believes that there is a God but turn their back on that God.
An argument exists that may not be appropriate to apply the concept of rejection of God to those who sincerely cannot, and may never have, believed in the existence of God.
There are those who would still apply the term, because they would say that to reject the reality of God given God’s existence, is a rejection of God, whether or not the person sincerely cannot believe in God.
However, some people who speak of an unbeliever ‘rejecting God’ are those who can’t imagine how anyone can fail to believe.
They don’t understand anyone’s understanding ‘rejection’ requires belief.
To reject God implies that a person knows or believes that there is a God but turn their back on that God.
An argument exists that may not be appropriate to apply the concept of rejection of God to those who sincerely cannot, and may never have, believed in the existence of God.
There are those who would still apply the term, because they would say that to reject the reality of God given God’s existence, is a rejection of God, whether or not the person sincerely cannot believe in God.
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stephe1987
Guest
With all the evidence in miracles, all the logical proofs for the existence of God (all this stuff is out there for free on the Internet for those who seek it), even an good number of scientists turning to Christianity (even though atheism is still most common and even enforced by threatening of job loss in the scientific community), I’ve come to the conclusion that atheists simply don’t want to believe in God.
Sometimes, atheists get very defensive, take Bible quotes out of context, and make fun of Christians and other people of their faith. I think these acts are out of hatred/anger, not love. Because even if you don’t believe in something, it doesn’t mean you should make fun of those who do believe in it. If I knew someone who believed in something I thought was silly I would either let them believe it or gently guide them toward truth, depending on what the belief was. But I would not make fun of them, misquote them, etc.
Now, why would they not want there to be a God? I think there is a misunderstanding of the so-called “problem of evil” (i.e. “God must be evil because he doesn’t stop evil from happening”) as well as a desire to lead their lives in the way they choose to. Being a Christian takes hard work. The commandments are not easy to follow. You are in a constant struggle to overcome sin, and are constantly falling short of what you know is expected of you. It also takes great humility to admit you did something wrong, and let’s face it, humans tend to be very prideful. Even many Catholics are afraid to go to Confession, and they are Christians!
In other cases I can think of, Christians have offered books with evidence for Jesus to their atheist friends. The atheist at first acted like he was interested (his friend was a former atheist who converted to Christianity) but a few weeks later returned the book unread because he didn’t want to believe in God, that Jesus is the Son of God, etc.
Sometimes, atheists get very defensive, take Bible quotes out of context, and make fun of Christians and other people of their faith. I think these acts are out of hatred/anger, not love. Because even if you don’t believe in something, it doesn’t mean you should make fun of those who do believe in it. If I knew someone who believed in something I thought was silly I would either let them believe it or gently guide them toward truth, depending on what the belief was. But I would not make fun of them, misquote them, etc.
Now, why would they not want there to be a God? I think there is a misunderstanding of the so-called “problem of evil” (i.e. “God must be evil because he doesn’t stop evil from happening”) as well as a desire to lead their lives in the way they choose to. Being a Christian takes hard work. The commandments are not easy to follow. You are in a constant struggle to overcome sin, and are constantly falling short of what you know is expected of you. It also takes great humility to admit you did something wrong, and let’s face it, humans tend to be very prideful. Even many Catholics are afraid to go to Confession, and they are Christians!
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snarflemike
Guest
Right. God calls every person to him, and provides every person the grace to accept that call. So each of us, OP included, either accepts God or rejects him.
I do think it’s possible that one can accept God in the sense of living according to the natural law (God’s law written into each human heart) while thinking they are rejecting God. But I could be wrong, so don’t say I gave you (OP) a thumbs up.
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ASimon
Guest
I, for one, don’t want the Christian God to be real, but I wouldn’t deny it, if I thought the evidence for it was even slightly compelling or obvious.
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snarflemike
Guest
Intriguing. Why don’t you want the Christian God to be real? Is there another god you’d prefer was the real one?
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ASimon
Guest
Well, I can certainly imagine for myself a God that I would prefer to the Christian one. That would be pretty easy. But in any event, Christianity insists that I believe in the existence of its God on bad evidence, to express compulsory love for Him (this despite the intermittent and unexpected horrors visited upon us in the course of our lives). That I wouldn’t know right from wrong if He didn’t exist to tell me what it was. That my life would be meaningless if I didn’t believe this. That I am guilty of sins committed long before I was born, but that I am “forgiven” this via a human sacrifice completed some twenty centuries ago in an illiterate suburb of Palestine. And if I don’t except these premises, I’m destined to suffer forever in hell after I die.
Now, take God away from the head of this scheme, and replace Him with any human despot. Would you willingly worship such a pathetic being? If you say no, your question simply reverses itself back on you - why do you want Christianity to be true?
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snarflemike
Guest
So you’d believe in the Christian God if you were created directly in heaven, bypassing all this earth business.
But I don’t want to run afoul of the “no atheism” rule, so I’d better stop at this point.
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ASimon
Guest
No, I’d believe in the Christian God if there was any sort of half-decent evidence that such a being existed. Wanting to believe in him is another matter. For that, a good place to start would be a Creator of the Universe that didn’t make my everlasting salvation contingent on my believing in him, or loving him without question.
I’m not a mod, but I think you’re safe. Though, I confess, in regards to threads that talk about atheism, on a board where atheists are free to post their thoughts, I never really know where the line starts and where it ends.
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